• Molecular Assemblies is commercializing an enzymatic, aqueous-phase oligonucleotide synthesis platform intended to replace the low-yield, water-free phosphoramidite chemistry that currently dominates DNA synthesis.  
• Blue Turtle Bio is engineering gut microbes to secrete glucocerebrosidase as an oral therapy for Gaucher’s disease, illustrating a live-biotherapeutic approach to enzyme-replacement.  
• A 2014 Church review paper, “Large-scale de novo DNA synthesis: technologies and applications,” was identified as the most comprehensive survey of existing DNA synthesis techniques and their bottlenecks.  
• Patent US8808989 outlines a template-free enzymatic DNA synthesis method that uses terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase (TdT) with reversible 3′-blocking groups (e.g., amino-acid terminators, disulfide linkers); participants suggested specific protein-engineering targets (Δ3384/391/392, Loop1 deletion) to improve step-wise polymerization fidelity.  
• The community lacks a comparative flowchart that maps every working oligonucleotide synthesis route together with its failure modes; creating such a resource was proposed as a high-impact open-source project.  
• Y Combinator launched the “YC Fellowship,” a $12 k no-equity grant program aimed at very early-stage hardware and biotech prototypes, potentially lowering the barrier to entry for garage-level bioengineering.  
• Optoelectrowetting demonstrations (laser-guided droplet motion on photoresponsive surfaces) were shared via YouTube videos, sparking discussion of LED-array implementations for droplet-based DNA assembly or selection.  
• A Nature paper on “vapour-mediated sensing and mobility in two-component droplets” inspired a vapor-gradient scheme to separate “good” from “bad” DNA-encoding droplets, though contamination risks were flagged.  
• Stephen Hawking and Yuri Milner announced “Breakthrough Listen,” a $100 M, 10-year SETI initiative beginning in 2016 that will conduct the largest radio and optical surveys ever undertaken for extraterrestrial intelligence.  
• Correlated Magnetics Research’s “printed polarity magnets” (YouTube demos) were proposed as a programmable, non-contact magnetic coupling mechanism that could be repurposed for precision seismic isolation in sensitive instrumentation.